


our feet come down in pattern

by allegrolines



Category: Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Friendship/Love, M/M, Team Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-03
Updated: 2015-11-03
Packaged: 2018-04-29 18:06:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5137508
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allegrolines/pseuds/allegrolines
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“We’re a good team,” Jooheon says then, grinning at him, and Minhyuk isn’t sure whether he’s talking about the two of them, or about the group, or maybe about both.</p>
            </blockquote>





	our feet come down in pattern

**Author's Note:**

> This is sort of a sequel to [heart keeps on beating](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4720889), but it can definitely be read on its own.
> 
> ~for Taka

The bed in the living room is still lumpy and too soft, but it looks like heaven on earth after another day jam-packed with their comeback schedules. Neither of them have slept a lot lately—neither of them have slept a lot since they debuted, or even before that, to be honest—and Minhyuk feels heavy and fuzzy-headed. His limbs are sore and his thoughts sluggish, and he stumbles over his own feet when they finally get back to the dorm, bangs his hip against the doorjamb, and finally manages to flop face down on the mattress.

There’s a stubborn spring digging on his side, and he needs a shower and food and a week-long nap. Instead of getting up and doing any of those things, Minhyuk closes his eyes and just lies there without moving, half listening to what the others are doing, their footsteps soft and familiar as they go around the dorm. He must doze off for a few minutes, because the next thing he knows the mattress is jolting and dipping under the weight of another body.

Or bodies, apparently. Jooheon and Hoseok have joined him on the bed, sitting side by side and talking quietly between them. Minhyuk can’t see their faces, but one of Jooheon’s hands is on the small of his back, his thumb rubbing at the little bit of skin exposed between the hem of Minhyuk’s shirt and the waistband of his jeans. Unsurprisingly—not that it makes it any better—Hoseok has his head bowed forward, his shoulders tense and knotted like he’s waiting for a blow.

“Hey,” Minhyuk rasps, turning under Jooheon’s hand and trying to blink the exhaustion out of his eyes.

“Hey,” Jooheon says back with a tired smile. Minhyuk sits up and scoots over so the three of them can fit better; he ends up at one end of the mattress, with Hoseok sandwiched between him and Jooheon.

Hoseok’s face looks pale and worn out, with deep, dark circles under his eyes. He still keeps working himself to the bone, keeps taking care of all of them to the best of his abilities, but it’s obvious he has been off lately—Minhyuk can see it in the way Hoseok’s smiles have been growing thinner and tighter, the way he seems to be scrapped raw, his emotions too close to the surface. They are all worried about him, but it’s difficult to _do_ something that will actually help—it’s not like they can drop all their commitments and send Hoseok with his family for a couple of weeks, or even force him to sleep in for once. They are all trying to hang on as well as they can, with the stages, the long hours of practice, and everything else that goes on in between of both. 

“I should go,” Hoseok says. His voice sounds slurred, and his face is half mashed against Jooheon’s shoulder. “I need to take a shower.”

“It’s fine, hyung,” Jooheon tells him, squeezing Hoseok's wrist gently. “Hyungwonie and Changkyunie have the first turns today, remember? You can stay here until they’re done.”

Minhyuk feels Hoseok sigh heavily and go boneless little by little—until Hoseok turns his head all of a sudden and blinks sleepy eyes at him. “Sorry,” he whispers hoarsely, “I guess you wanted to be alone, right?”

Jooheon looks at Minhyuk over Hoseok’s head. It's been a couple of months since they talked, since Jooheon kissed him on the corner of his mouth, almost too short and soft to believe it had really happened. There have been other kisses, stolen moments between rehearsals and during any scrap of free time they've had lately. Theirs aren't the most ideal circumstances for a blooming relationship, Minhyuk supposes, but he has found he doesn’t mind the slow pace; it's not that he doesn’t think about having sex, or about having sex with Jooheon, specifically—it’s kind of inevitable, what with Jooheon's thighs, and his mouth, and his whole Jooheon-ness. But this is good, too, and easier than Minhyuk could have ever imagined or expected.

“Don’t worry about it, hyung,” Minhyuk says, patting Hoseok’s knee, and Hoseok hums wordlessly, nuzzling into the crook of Jooheon’s neck. He’s fast asleep a few beats later, his breath coming out in soft puffs. 

“Well, I guess he knows about us, then,” Minhyuk says.

Jooheon snorts, reaching out to carefully push Hoseok’s hair off his eyes. “Of course he knows, hyung,” he says. “I’m pretty sure everyone knows.”

“Oh,” Minhyuk says. 

“I mean, Kihyunie hyung caught me sleeping in your bed last week,” Jooheon says. “And I’m pretty sure Hyungwon hyung offered to buy lube for me the other day.”

“What the hell,” Minhyuk says, rubbing at his face. “I’m too tired to process—” he waves his hands around helplessly— “any of this. Especially the lube thing.”

Jooheon doesn’t say anything for a long moment and Minhyuk peers at him. He looks exhausted, but there’s something else there, a mix of determination and stubbornness in the set of his mouth and the way he’s frowning a little. Sometimes it’s too easy to forget that both Jooheon and Changkyun are the youngest out of the seven of them, and for all of his aegyo and random bouts of over-affectionate excitement, Jooheon is serious and passionate about what they do in a way that never fails to take Minhyuk’s breath away.

“All of them are looking out for us,” Jooheon finally says. His eyes flick down at Hoseok, still asleep on his shoulder. “It pains me that I can’t do more for you and everyone else. Do you know you’re a bit like Hoseokie hyung, Minhyukie?” Jooheon asks. “You try so hard to take care of all of us you sometimes forget to look after yourself.” He takes a deep breath. “I’m not as good at helping people and comforting them, I think, but—I want to get better. I really, really want to help too.”

Minhyuk thinks about Jooheon, writing lyrics on their way back and forth between the dorm and wherever they were scheduled to go until he got so carsick he couldn’t even walk afterwards, and then staying up all night to compose and practice. Minhyuk wants to tell him that he does enough for them already, and yet he finds he can’t, because he knows very well how it feels to always want to be doing _more_.

“That’s why we’re a team, right?” he ends up saying. “It’s not about one person, but about what all of us do. Like when Kihyunie nags at me and Hyungwon to clean up our stuff—it’s annoying, but it helps everybody in the end. Or like when Hyunwoo hyung helps us with the choreo. You also do stuff like that, you know?”

“I do?” Jooheon asks softly. 

“Yes,” Minhyuk replies. He reaches out and takes Jooheon’s hand, lacing their fingers together. 

Jooheon blushes a little. “I kinda want to kiss you right now,” he says

“Only kinda, Jooheonie?” Minhyuk says, and he means for it to sound teasing but he can tell he’s too breathless to make it work.

“I’m not gonna kiss you while Hoseokie hyung’s sleeping on me, Minhyuk-ah.”

“Later, then?” Minhyuk can’t help but ask.

Jooheon nods, squeezing his hand, and they sit there, sharing their little pocket of space in silence until Hyungwon comes into the living room to tell Hoseok it’s his turn to shower. Hyungwon squints at the three of them, but chooses not to say anything about it. He waits while Jooheon shakes Hoseok awake and helps him get on his feet, and then both him and Hoseok walk out of the room—Hyungwon’s arm thrown around Hoseok’s shoulders, and Hoseok’s sleep-thick voice echoing from the hallway. As soon as they are out of their sight Jooheon turns towards Minhyuk, raising up to his knees and leaning forward to kiss him. He licks into Minhyuk’s mouth, hot and wet and perfect, flicking his tongue against Minhyuk’s lips just before he pulls back and breaks the kiss one brief moment later, way, _way_ too soon for Minhyuk’s taste.

“We’re a good team,” Jooheon says then, grinning at him, and Minhyuk isn’t sure whether he’s talking about the two of them, or about the group, or maybe about both.

It probably doesn’t matter—either way, they have each other’s backs.

“Yes,” Minhyuk says. “We really are.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from The Jezabels' "Catch Me". 
> 
> This comeback has been really intense and emotional, and I just had to do something with my feelings.
> 
>  
> 
> [Happy birthday, Minhyuk.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG8MAmQ2fs4)


End file.
